By all measures, 37-year-old Laura Hattan听is the mountain version of a supermom: She owns the , the gateway town for Wyoming鈥檚 storied Wind River Range. She hikes, cycles, skis, runs, climbs, and fly-fishes in the mountains, often accompanied by her 15-year-old daughter, Sierra. She founded听and directs听the , which combines an adventure race and music festival.听It鈥檚 the life she always wanted鈥攂ut getting it meant prying herself away from her life听as a stay-at-home mom in the city听and starting anew in a tourist economy. Here鈥檚 how Hattan took the plunge.
The Trigger to Change
I was born and raised in Nebraska, but my husband and I spent most of our weekends making trips to Colorado or up to Minnesota to go rock climbing. Then my daughter, Sierra, was born, and I felt like we had to make a change.
I鈥檇 read this book called听, which talked about how, these days, most kids鈥 radius for exploration stops at the end of their driveway. That was just shocking to me. In Nebraska, I grew up in the country, but not on a farm. Until I went to college, I never realized that other kids didn鈥檛 grow up exploring river bottoms and wandering all around. I wanted that for my daughter鈥擨 wanted her to know what the outdoors was like.
So, when Sierra was six months old, we took a big road trip across the Mountain West听to check out where we might want to live. Wyoming really appealed to us. We liked the quiet, and we liked the people. Then, in May 2005, we saw a job posting for an outdoor gear shop in Pinedale that was looking for managers. We interviewed with the owners over the phone听and moved out here two weeks later.
The Cash Crunch
In Nebraska, my husband had been working as a computer programmer, and the job at the Great Outdoor Shop paid half as much. Meanwhile, our rent leaped from $500 a month to $1,500 for a two-bedroom townhouse. Living in the apartment above the gear shop was a key perk, because it helped us make that transition. It worked out so well with Sierra.
Plus, we liked the job. My husband and I worked the same shifts. Then, in 2014, we bought the business from the owners, who were looking to step back and had been mentors to us. Last year, my husband and I also bought , a fly-fishing shop and guide service just one block down from the Great Outdoor Shop.
My husband and I still make sacrifices to live here. We have to live really frugally听and classify needs versus wants. To this day, I still have, like, three pieces of furniture鈥攂ut there are听only three of us, so we only need one couch. We don鈥檛 go out for smoothies, because Pinedale is expensive. It may not be on par with Jackson, but compared to Lincoln, prices here are shocking. Pinedale has virtually no growing season, so everything is trucked in from the interstate, 100 miles away. Everything costs more.
But it鈥檚 so worth it. The Wind River Range is incredible, a unique gem. Visitors come through and ask where our Tetons T-shirts are, and I think, no! This range is three times the size of the Tetons! It鈥檚 got the largest glacier in the Rockies! We don鈥檛 have a TV, but we go outside and play鈥攖hat鈥檚 why we moved here.
The Outdoor Payoff
Backpacking is my favorite.听I love to put on a pack and get some really long days in, so for me, the Wind Rivers are perfect. I also ride road and mountain bikes, and I run鈥攁lthough I鈥檓 like a slow, fat beagle.听I鈥檒l fish if I鈥檓 catching fish, but I won鈥檛 stand there for four hours if I鈥檓 not catching anything. In winter, I ski听and snowboard听and Nordic ski.
The benefits of being here are hedonistic: I love playing in the mountains. But there鈥檚 also a greater benefit in watching my daughter grow up in the mountains,听in an environment that鈥檚 almost endangered in this country.
Raising a kid in a small mountain town is the best. Sierra started going to the local ski hill on her own when she was six. For her tenth birthday, she asked to climb Fremont Peak, which was an 18-mile day鈥攖he longest she鈥檇 ever done. Having a tiny person with you and watching them experience the joy of something like that听is pretty incredible. I like to say we鈥檙e late locals. We weren鈥檛 born and raised in Wyoming, but we got here as soon as we could.